[UPDATED] This 17-Year-Old Was Fired After Asking for Equal Pay at Her Summer Job

When a Kansas teenager discovered that her guy friend was making more money than she was for the same job, she asked her boss about it — and then got fired.

Jensen Walcott, 17, was hired at Pizza Studio in Kansas City for $8 an hour. She was thrilled to get the job, especially when she learned that her good friend Jake Reed, also 17, had been hired. Even though Jensen and Jake are the same age, have the same amount of experience, and were hired for the same position, Jake was hired at $8.25 an hour.

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Assuming it was a mistake, Jensen called her new boss. She was put on hold.

"I was like maybe when I'm on hold right now, she will just offer me $8.25 and everything is gonna be good but... she didn't do that," Jensen told WDAF.

The manager returned and told Jensen she was fired for discussing wages, which is against policy. Next, she called Jake and fired him.

"She said you're fired," Jake told WDAF. "Basically just like a 10 second phone call."

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Neither teen had ever been told that discussing wages was against policy.

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Attorney David White told WDAF that the National Labor Relations Board says it's appropriate to discuss wages, which gives White reason to believe that Jensen could reasonably retaliate in court.

"At face value it appears, that the young lady was terminated because she complained about unequal wages. That's illegal," White told WDAF. "Probably what happened — they're teenagers. They didn't think they'd complain."

Jensen isn't sure yet if she'll take any official legal action, but she still wants to fully understand why she wasn't given equal pay.

"They should definitely be ashamed of themselves," she said.

You might be wondering, why is a quarter such a big deal?

Well, it's not just Jensen. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), there was a 21-percent wage gap between full-time male and female workers in 2014. And those numbers are even worse for women of color. Equal pay is a huge issue that affects millions of Americans. You work hard for your money — just as hard (or even harder!) than your male counterparts do. You deserve to be rewarded just the same.

Update, June 27, 3:00 p.m.:

In a statement released to Seventeen.com, a spokesperson for Pizza Studio explained that Jensen's firing was mishandled and was not related to her gender. They have apologized to both her and Jake, and have fired the manager responsible for the incident.

Pizza Studio has fully investigated the incident and we want to be clear that gender did not play a role in determination of either salary, nor for any Pizza Studio employee. As a female and the highest ranking operations executive in the company, I oversee 750 employees, and have personally instituted policies and procedures that strictly prohibit discrimination of any kind. After an in-depth review, we are confident this instance was not one of gender-bias but rather a failure to assign the correct salary and a misunderstanding of our company policies by one of our employees; it should be noted the manager in communication with Miss Walcott is also a female.Pizza Studio did not agree however with how the manager handled the situation. We pride ourselves with treating our employees and guests with respect and open communication at all times. We have extended a formal apology to both Miss Walcott and Mr. Reed and have parted ways with the responsible manager in the best interest of all parties involved. We plan to use this experience to better improve our hiring procedures and policies moving forward. We would like to thank Miss Walcott and Mr. Reed, the Kansas City community, and press for voicing their concerns and bringing this serious matter to our attention.

Both teens were offered their job back, but neither chose to accept. Had they both returned to Pizza Studio, their pay would have been equal, the spokesperson said.